The present invention relates to a method for managing life cycles and system for the same. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method for managing life cycles of products by affixing electronic tags to products and a system for the same.
In the past, methods and systems for managing the disassembly of various types of products have been proposed as technologies relating to product life cycle management. For example, in Japanese laid-open patent publication number 6-168253, there is disclosed a method and system for the disassembly of products. In this technology, the product itself displays a code based on the product name, the name of the manufacturer of the product, the model number, the year the product was produced, the production number, and the like. Also, the components and the names of the materials are displayed on each of the parts that make up the product. This data is used to perform disassembly of the product. Japanese laid-open patent publication number 9-155327 discloses a disposal system in which the desirable disposable method for a discarded product is determined from information affixed to the discarded product and information from a database.
Japanese laid-open patent publication number 7-160325 discloses a method for performing maintenance of products. In this technology, a product is formed from a plurality of elements (parts). On the product is disposed storing means storing the history of each element. Maintenance is performed using this stored history information.
In Japanese laid-open patent publication number 8-277020, there is disclosed a disposal method and system that uses an IC card. The information in the IC card is used as a manifest for special industrial waste management documentation systems. Alterations to the waste disposal manifest are prevented and certified companies can be identified.